Originally
posted by
ssewellusmc:
Originally
posted by
ZoSo:
With the general demise of the manufacturing industry, the average age of a fast food worker in the US is now 29. Many of these people have families and qualify for federal and state funded aid programs such as food stamps medicare and school lunch programs. They earn so little that many pay very little in federal or state taxes (aside from sales tax). Same with the big box stores like Walmart, Target, etc.
We The Taxpayers are subsidizing the upper management profits of these corporations precisely because they pay their workers so little.
http://www.forbes.com/...labor-costs-to-taxpayers/
Give these poor bastards a significant bump in minimum wage and they will no longer suck federal and state dollars out of the system. Instead they will be paying more in taxes, stimulating economic growth still spending every dollar they earn, and achieve a little bit better quality of life.
And while at it, close the offshore tax loopholes these corporate monstrosities use to avoid paying billions in taxes.
http://www.reuters.com/...ore-idUSBREA3729V20140409
Those poor "bastards" will still qualify for the same welfare they qualified for at 7.25 an hour. You would simply be forcing the consumers to pay the same taxes and pay more for the goods they consume.
If these workers want to get paid more, they should obtain skills the market deems worthy of a higher wage.
No they will not qualify for the same aid. Math.
http://familiesusa.org/...ederal-poverty-guidelines
Originally
posted by
blid:
People shouldn't have to work overtime just to make ends meet.
Indeed. To state again, an average fast food worker is *twenty nine years old*. Not a kid, and just as likely has one or two children. Compared to even fifteen years ago, the manufacturing jobs are largely gone; there's three applicants for every available position. It's certainly not a market in which the lesser skilled can get on-the-job training. Shall high school grads take on upper five-digit debt to get a degree when college grads are already pushing burgers?
And even $30k/year is not easy street by any means when raising a family. Quality of life is slipping. The hope that the next generation will have it better is waning.
We've seen what happens to the US educational standings globally when working class parents have to put in full time hours plus just to make ends meet. Education is put on the shoulders of underfunded public schools as neighborhoods deteriorate and property taxes plunge. It's a downward spiral, counterproductive even to the shortsighted corporatists.
We do need an economic system that encourages small business growth instead of the mega-corporate greed that has allowed the super-wealthy to reap 95% of the so-called "US economic recovery" since the 2007-08 fiasco. But we cannot count on the free market being fair when maximum profit to provide gold plated toilets for the super rich supersedes basic quality of life issues for the (failing) middle and working class. Does the current form of capitalism really have to go through the process of eating itself before we see the ultimate dead end?
http://blogs.wsj.com/...ins-went-to-wealthiest-1/
A wealthy man worth 50k or 100k times the worth of a typical middle class worker will never purchase 50k or 100k times the commodities. Don't believe the hype, he's not the job creator. He's stashing his money in ways to avoid paying his fair share of taxes while watching YOUR taxes subsidize his underpaid employees. He doesn't create demand buying three new luxury cars a year and ten nice suits. He doesn't create demand by pissing into a golden urinal on his private jet. Don't they teach that in two year business degrees any more?
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